The Ekkono Method: The Importance of Good Training Context
Why the training context — not the exercise itself — is the first and most decisive design choice a coach makes.
An introductory coaching-education webinar from the "Advanced Training Methodology: Designing High-Performance Exercises" course with Fran Rubio Sedano and Enric Puigdevall Ventura, Ekkono Coaches Academy — why the training context, not the exercise itself, is the first and most decisive choice a coach makes.
Host: Fran Rubio Sedano & Enric Puigdevall Ventura — Coach Educators · Ekkono Coaches Academy
An introductory session to the "Advanced Training Methodology" course. Fran Rubio Sedano argues that a good exercise isn't a shape copied from another coach — it's a carefully designed context that gives players something they can genuinely transfer to competition. The closer that context sits to real match conditions — space, tactical intent, density and how often the target action repeats — the more that learning transfers to the pitch.
Key points
- A good exercise is a context the coach designs to give players something they can use in competition — not the exercise itself.
- A coach influences players in two ways: analysing the match to know what to improve, and designing exercises that actually train it.
- Realism isn't an absolute goal — it's bounded by two limits: managing physical load to avoid injury, and matching content to the players' age.
- The "third man" principle — illustrated with a 4-space, 3-defender rondo — as a worked example of building a training context.
- A worked U12 progression shows how to move a closed-space rondo toward match-realistic space and density without overloading players physically.